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Edd "Kookie" Byrnes
Edd "Kookie" Byrnes (born July 30, 1933 - died January 8, 2020) was an American actor best known for his starring role in the television series 77 Sunset Strip. Byrnes also was featured in the 1978 film Grease as a television teen-dance show host, Vince Fontaine, and a single-charted recording artist with "Kookie, Kookie - Lend Me Your Comb" with Connie Stevens. Early Life Byrnes was born in New York City as Edward Byrne Breitenberger. When he was 13, his father died. He then dropped his last name in favor of "Byrnes" based on his maternal grandfather, who was a fireman. Screen Career His enduring and most famous role was a Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson III, on the ABC television detective series 77 Sunset Strip. He played a continually hair-combing serial killer in the pilot, Girl on the Run, but he was so popular (a national teen sensation) that the producers brought him back the following week as a regular cast member in the role of a chrome-plated hot rod driving, hipster-talking ("Kookie-Talk") parking valet and some protege private investigator, Efrem Zimbalist Jr. explained the situation to the audience: *We previewed this show, and because Edd Byrnes was such a hit we decided that Kookie and his comb had to be in our series. So this week, we'll just forget that in the pilot he went off to prison to be executed. *From the pre-credit sequences for the episode "Lovely Lady, Pity Me": **Kookie's recurring character - a different, exciting look to which teens of the day related - the valet parking attendance who constantly combed his piled-high, greasy-styled teen hair, often in a windbreaker jacket, who worked part-time at the so-called Dean Martin's Dino Lounge restaurant, next door to private investigator agency at 77 Sunset Strip - frequently acted as an unlicensed, protege detective who helped the private eyes (Zimbalist and Roger Smith) on their cases based upon "The Word" heard from Kookie's street informants. Kookie called everybody "Dad" (as in "Sure thing...Dad") and was television's homage to Jack Kerouac style of cult-hipster of the late 1950s. To the thrill of teen viewers, Kookie talked a jive-talk "code" to everyone, whether you understand him or not, and Kookie knew better than others "the word on the street". Some say the Kookie character borrowed music from James Dean's "Rebel", and was progenitor to The Fonz from the Happy Days series (switching the hot rod for a motorcycle; same hair, comb and a leather jacket). Kookie's constant on screen tending of his ducktail haircut led to many jokes among comedians at the time, and resulted in the 1959 charted 'rap' styled recording (13 weeks), "Kookie, Kookie - Lend Me Your Comb", recorded with actress and recording artist Connie Stevens, and which reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song also appeared on the Edd Byrnes album entitled (what else) Kookie. He and Stevens appeared together on ABC's The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom. During the run of the 77 Sunset Strip series, Byrnes (as the "Kookie" character) was a popular celebrity (Elvis Presley-level national attention) and Byrnes received fanmail volume that reached 15,000 letters a week, according to Picture Magazine in 1961, and rivaled most early rock recording stars in the day. Byrnes walked off the show in the second season demanding a bigger part and bigger pay, to which the producers eventually agreed. Owning to restrictions in his Warner Brothers television contract, he was forced to turn down roles in: Ocean's Eleven (1960), Rio Bravo (1959), North to Alaska (1960) and The Longest Day (1962). However, he appeared in the Warners films Darby's Rangers (1957) replacing Tab Hunter, Majorie Morningstar (1958), Up Periscope and Yellowstone Key (both in 1959). Byrnes tested for the role of John F. Kennedy in PT 109 but the President preferred Cliff Robertson, who was eventually cast for the role. Though a popular celebrity, and yet not a particularly gifted actor, the years of unfortunate "Kookie" typecasting led Byrnes to ultimately buy-out his television contract with Warners to clear his way for films - though it was accomplished too late to allow Byrnes to capitalize on feature-length cinema projects based upon his establishment television series fame. Post Warner Bros. Byrnes traveled to Europe where he made several films. He was featured as one of the commandos in 1964 in Roger Corman's The Secret Invasion. In 1965, he played Dick Martin in Beach Ball, then returned to Europe for several spaghetti westerns. Since then, he has appeared in many television programs and movies. He played the role of the Dick Clark-like dance-show host Vince Fontaine, host of National Bandstand (a semi-parody of American Bandstand) 'in the 1978 movie called Grease and as Ross Coleman in the 1989 movie called Troop Beverly Hills. In 1974, Byrnes hosted two pilots for Wheel of Fortune. according to his 1996 autobiography Kookie No More, he claims that he was drunk during his first and only two pilots. In the first pilot, he was "Crazy Drunk", often making weird faces at the camera, that is, when he was not obviously reading from cue cards. In the second pilot, he was "Happy Drunk", often saying "WHEE!" as the wheel spun. It also seemed to personally offend Mr. Byrnes that someone would actually be able to solve an eleven-letter puzzles based on three letters, imploring players to try for more letters. When the show got the greenlight by NBC at the time, Byrnes was eventually replaced by Chuck Woolery when the series went to air on January 6, 1975. Woolery previously hosted a similar pilot called Shopper's Bazaar ''in 1973. As a tribute to his enduring celebrity and iconic "Kookie" character, Edd Byrnes has ranked #5 in ''TV Guide's list of "TV's 25 Greatest Teen Idols" on its January 23, 2005 issue of the magazine. Byrnes wrote an autobiography entitled, Kookie No More, in 1996. His son by Asa Maynor is Logan Byrnes, a news anchor for Fox Connecticut since 2008. Byrnes died on January 8, 2020, from natural causes at his Santa Monica home, he was 87, he survived by his son Logan and his longtime partner, Catherine Gross. Link The Official Site of Edd "Kookie" Byrnes Category:Hosts Category:People Category:1933 Births Category:2020 Deaths Category:Deceased